One example of a known linear bearing is disclosed in German Patentschrift No. DE 40 22 168 C2. In this linear bearing, a ball deflection mechanism is used consisting of a U-shaped bearing piece which is seated with its plane base surface on the face of a support body. The balls run between the cylindrical outside surface of the ball deflection mechanism and the inside of the deflection hood.
A similar approach is known from German Patentschrift No. DE 36 39 544 C2. In this linear bearing, an intermediate piece is fitted into a ball reverse track groove in order to form a ball deflection channel in the cover plate. The outer surface of the intermediate piece is made flat and is in contact with a cylindrical outer sleeve. The balls roll off on the ball reverse track groove of the intermediate piece.
British Patent Specification No. 911,077 describes a track groove for deflecting the balls, where the track groove is formed by the combination of recesses in an end piece and hemispherical elevations made on the end area of the guide rail.
In previously proposed approaches such as described above, disadvantages arise in that the ball deflection sections must be mounted directionally and generally a differentiation into right and left executions, for the two axial ends of the linear bearing, is necessary.